Vaazhai

An intelligent but impoverished teenager forced to work the banana fields to repay family debt. He secretly admires Poongodi, the social science teacher, and tries to project confidence while balancing school and labor. Poverty shapes his choices, driving moments of hope, fear, and heartbreak as he navigates a harsh cycle of exploitation.

Sivanaindhan's adolescent friend who shares the fear of backbreaking labor and dreams of a better life. He stands with Sivanaindhan against the worst abuses of the wage system but ultimately becomes a casualty of the village's exploitation in the lorry tragedy.

Sivanaindhan's elder sister who is in love with Kani, embodying personal longing within the social struggle. She participates in the village's wage-discussion drive, foreshadowing the cost of collective action. Her death in the accident marks a personal and communal loss.

A communist-leaning thinker who challenges the barter of labor with higher wages. He advocates collective action, loses his job as a loadman, and remains committed to better conditions for villagers. His arc intersects with the tragedy that befalls the community.

Sivanaindhan's crush and a social science teacher who embodies the tension between education and exploitation in a poor village. Her presence highlights the distance between aspiration and harsh reality while supporting Sivanaindhan's inner conflict.

The village broker who negotiates pay and acts as the middleman between workers and the trader. His role underscores the power dynamics that set the terms of labor in the village. He dies in the same fatal accident that devastates the community.

The broker who pays barely enough for the banana bunches, enforcing a system that benefits commerce over human welfare. He represents the impersonal force behind the villagers' toil and the stakes of labor politics.

A devoted mother who endures poverty while trying to hold her family together. She sells their cow to survive and grapples with guilt as her children's suffering continues. Her tears reveal the emotional toll of poverty on mothers.

A village teacher who represents the formal education system in tension with rural realities. Her presence emphasizes the social environment in which Sivanaindhan and his peers seek meaning beyond field labor.